Playing Tetris: University students (17 to 25 years old) participate in the WRO’s Advanced Robotics Challenge (ARC) competition. This year’s challenge for this category consisted of making the robot score as many points as possible in “Tetrastack,” a robotic version of the video game Tetris. Carla Gómez (orange shirt, left) and Gabriel Guevara (orange shirt, right), students at the Technology Institute of Costa Rica, along with their classmates Fabián Picado and Karol Quirós (not pictured), designed and built the robot in this photo. The team from Thailand won in this category. Credits: Debbie Ponchner

"Sustainable Robots" Face Off at the World Robotic Olympiad

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Playing Tetris: University students (17 to 25 years old) participate in the WRO’s Advanced Robotics Challenge (ARC) competition. This year’s challenge for this category consisted of making the robot score as many points as possible in “Tetrastack,” a robotic version of the video game Tetris. Carla Gómez (orange shirt, left) and Gabriel Guevara (orange shirt, right), students at the Technology Institute of Costa Rica, along with their classmates Fabián Picado and Karol Quirós (not pictured), designed and built the robot in this photo. The team from Thailand won in this category. Debbie Ponchner

Goal! Fifteen-year-old Alaric Espina from the Philippines traveled for over 35 hours to be a part of the soccer games at the Olympiad. It took him and his teammates, Gab Flores and Jan Cuevas (not shown), four months to build the two robots that played soccer under their country's flag. In the soccer challenge, two teams of robots play on a special table that resembles a soccer field. Debbie Ponchner

Puerto Rico in the House: Members of the Puerto Rico delegation had to use portable power generators to finish building their robots after Hurricane Maria hit the island in September, leaving over 90 percent of the U.S. territory without electrical power. But the kids, working under the guidance of a nongovernment organization called Techno Inventors Puerto Rico, made it to Costa Rica. In this photo, Jay Kenneth Ainslie, Johmar García and Kevin Ruiz (left to right), all 15 years old, competed in the junior category with their robot “Puertorro.” Debbie Ponchner

A Cleaner Mumbai: Aarav Patel (left), Shiv Mehta (right) and Sidharth Jain (not shown), all from Mumbai, India, developed Trail-On, a system they say lets two cars going the same way link up to share power from one motor, reducing fuel use to some degree. The 13-year-old students created a robotic model of the system for the Olympiad, as well as a phone app that lets users find eachother, decide on a meeting place to link up their cars, and exchange PayPal payments for gasoline. This project won the competition’s prize for “The Future of Innovation.” Debbie Ponchner

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The Amazing Wheatgrass Robotic System: Chloe Mak Yu Ying, Loh Huey Xin and Tan Ji Tao (left to right), all 13-year-olds, came all the way from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to present to the world their robotic wheatgrass-growing system. The automated setup grows the plant as food for livestock inside a greenhouse in seven days--without having to clear any land. The children competed in the Open category for elementary school students, and took home the category's first prize. Debbie Ponchner

Fixing and Prepping: After each round of competition in the Olympiad, teams can fix their robots and improve their algorithms for the next round. The working table of the soccer team from Taiwan (competing under the name Chinese Taipei)--the winner in this category--is shown here. Debbie Ponchner

Iran in the Field: This is the second time Faham Ardestani (shown here), 15, from Iran, has competed in a World Robotic Olympiad. The first time he participated in the Open category; this time he came to play soccer. Debbie Ponchner

GUÁCIMA, ALAJUELA, Costa Rica—Hundreds of robots—some designed to play 3D Tetris or soccer, others to tackle some of Earth’s dire sustainability challenges—invaded this small Costa Rican town last weekend.

The machines were accompanied by their creators: 2,500 competitors, ages six to 25, from more than 60 countries, at the 14th World Robot Olympiad (WRO) held Nov. 10–12. This was the first time in the event’s 14-year history that it was held outside Asia. As host, Costa Rica had to decide the competition’s theme and chose “Sustainabots”—robots designed to contribute to sustainability, conservation and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. The conservation-minded Central American country, which has over 25 percent of its territory under protected areas, has launched official efforts to eventually become a carbon-neutral nation by drastically minimizing the use of fossil fuels for power generation and transportation.

Visitors strolling through the Olympiad’s exhibit booths found robotic approaches to reducing CO2 emissions from cars in streets of Mumbai; to quickly growing cattle feed without clearing land; and to venturing into the forest to count trees, map their locations, identify their species and determine dozens of other characteristics that might otherwise be carried out by a human botanist.

“For the youngsters, this is not only a way for them to view science and technology as something fun and playful, but also for them to see how science, technology and engineering can solve problems that we have as a planet—challenges such as climate change, renewable energies and sustainable tourism,” said Carolina Vásquez-Soto, Costa Rica’s Minister of Science, Technology and Telecommunications.

The competition venue—the 9,000-square-meter Parque Viva exhibit hall—rang with languages from around the world. But the competitors seemed to understand each other through a shared love of building and programming robots. “Our main objective is to make children and teenagers fall in love with science and technology. Robotics is one of many tools by which you can achieve that,” said Alejandra Sánchez, a mechanical and electrical engineer who teaches robotics at the University of Costa Rica and was a key organizer of the event.

The contest was not just about sustainability; one of its highlights was a robotic soccer tournament mimicking a FIFA World Cup. In front of bleachers covered in flags and fans from their resepective homelands, teams from some 60 countries—each represented by two soccer-playing robots—faced each other. The winners of each match advanced to the next round until the final game was won by Taiwan, playing under the name “Chinese Taipei.” At another popular event, college students unleashed their robots to score as many points as possible in “Tetrastack,” a real-world, three-dimensional version of the video game Tetris.

Meanwhile, elementary and high school students minded robots (built using Lego Mindstorm pieces) that took on challenges related to sustainable tourism, carbon neutrality, and renewable and clean energy. Russia was the big winner, taking home the gold in all three categories.

According to Sánchez, the $1.2-million Olympiad received support from the Costa Rican government and private local sponsors. It was organized by Aprender Haciendo (Learn Through Doing)—the representative of LEGO education for Costa Rica and Panama—in collaboration with the National Center for High Technology and the country’s Ministry of Science, Technology and Telecommunications. Next year the World Robotic Olympiad will be hosted by Thailand.

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